Tyrese Proctor would like you to get off his lawn.
The Australian guard is in his junior year with Duke, which, in Blue Devil years, makes him eligible for Shady Pines. Folks just don’t stick around that long in Durham. Consider: In three years, Proctor has had 29 teammates, meaning the entire roster has turned over more than twice. Contrary to popular belief, Kyrie Irving and Grant Hill are not on that list.
Heck, he’s been on the job as long as his coach.
“To me, it’s his look,” said Jon Scheyer, also in his third year. “He’s got a veteran’s look. Competitive, poised, tough. We have a great connection. Where when there’s something on the court that I think he should have done, he’s right there to say ‘I got you’, or vice versa. He may see something and tell me, and that’s what it should be. When you’ve been together for three years, you’ve gone through a lot.”
This year, Duke is one of a handful of teams with a legitimate shot at winning the national title, and the Blue Devils are led by a spectacular freshman class. Cooper Flagg, assuming he leaves after one year, is the consensus top pick in the NBA Draft. Sharpshooters Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans, rim protector Khaman Maluach and big man Patrick Ngongba, who has developed into a reliable bench player as the year has gone on, give the Duke rookies a little bit of everything.
Still, while the kids are getting the attention, Proctor is quietly having a career year, even if everyone tunes out his talk about the days when bread was a nickel and gas less than a dollar a gallon.
“Coop’s my little brother,” Proctor said of Flagg, who leads Duke in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks and steals. “He might be all big-time and stuff like that, but he’s still a little kid to me.”
When faced with a two-day turnaround between a Saturday home game against Stanford and a Monday trip to Virginia, Proctor said, “I think it’s a wake-up call for the younger guys. They haven’t been in a situation like this.”
He then added, “I’ve, obviously, had experience in it.”
Sure, he may be the only one on the roster who learned to write in cursive or knows what to do with a postage stamp. However, his multiple trips around the block will come in handy as tournament season approaches and the pressure increases, and playing every two days becomes a weekly occurrence for teams that advance.
“Recovery’s a big thing,” Proctor said of the quick turnaround. “And then mentally, just being able to lock in mentally for the next scout. Obviously, we got a lot thrown at us, and a one-day, two-day turnaround is going to be a lot of film, a lot of personnel.”
Duke ended up winning the two games by a combined 54-point margin.
Far from just giving advice like a locker-room Yoda, Proctor has been a key contributor on the court. He leads Duke in three-pointers made and percentage from beyond the arc, shooting 60 percentage points better than last season. With skilled passers like Cooper Flagg and Sion James able to run the offense, Proctor has also been free to hunt his shot more often, boosting his scoring by nearly two points a game over last year. Plus, he’s almost always assigned to shut down the other team’s top scorer on defense.
“His preparation has been high level,” said Scheyer. “I think, for him, he’s really done two things incredibly well. That’s why he’s going to be in the NBA for a long time and make a career. It’s his shooting and his competitiveness and his defense. Obviously, he can play make and he enforces no turnovers, and he can put the ball on the floor. He can do a lot more than just those two things, but I think the strength of his game is built on those two things, and he’s embraced it. He’s been shot ready, and guys have found him.”
Proctor has been riding a hot streak of late. In the five games starting with the UNC win, he has scored 97 points, the best stretch of his career. He hit 18-of-37 from three, for a .486 accuracy, over that span, as well.
“I’m just having fun out there,” he said. “I’m not overthinking, playing confident, and shots are falling.”
“We’re just playing free,” he added. “We’ve got so many shooters on the court. If you help on Coop or help on Kon on their drives, everyone’s loaded up, ready for the ball. I think we’ve got a good rhythm right now and we’re starting to feel like we’re playing with each other a lot better.”
After all that time at Duke, it sounds like Tyrese Proctor may finally have found the good old days.
